Ethical & Social Issues in the Information Age:

An Introduction

Chapter 1, 2 & 3 in “Ethical & Social Issues in the Information Age”.

Chapter 1& 2 in “Computer Ethics: A global perspective”.

Topic1

By: Dr. Najla Al-Nabhan & Ms. Asma AlKhamis

Reminder

´ Course Blog:

´ https://csc304.wordpress.com/

Lecture Outline

´  Information Technology Social Significance.

´  Information Technology Social Issues.

´  Terminologies

´  Information Technology (IT).

´  Ethics

´  Morality

´  Computer Ethics

´  Computer Crimes.

´  Why do need to study computer ethics?

´  Discussion Questions.

Information Technology Social Significance

´ The rapid advance in information Technology (IT) has brought modern society into the “information age”.

´ This revolution surpasses both the agricultural and industrial revolutions in social significance.

´ Why?

´ A new reality called “Information Economy”.

Information Technology Social Significance (cont.)

´ Information economy enables people to: ´ Earn their living by working digitally with money and ideas.

´ Exchange knowledge & information in digital form rather than physical goods, tools, and services.

´ The increased role of information activities & industry rapidly affects the way people live, communicate, work, and entertain.

´ Humans are widely connected to and sometimes totally dependent on information systems & computing tools.

Information Technology Ethical Issues

´ IT has become a principle tool for political power, authority, and propaganda, as well as for providing the opportunity for electronic crimes, fraud, surveillance & security.

´ In this multi-faceted world of information society, traditional ethical human behavior evolve.

´ Traditional ethical questions are re-examined and new questions arise concerning moral standards for human behavior.

Information Technology Ethical Issues

´ Information systems raise new ethical questions because they create opportunities for:

´ Intense social change, threatening existing distributions of power, money, rights, and obligations.

´ New kinds of crimes.

Effects of Information Technology

´ Exaggerate traditional ethical problems ´ New ways to invade privacy

´ Convert already know ethical issues into analogous issues ´ Change idea of ownership & intellectual property

´ Create entirely new ethical problems ´ Viruses, hacking

Part-I of the this Course: Ethical Issues in Computing.

´ We provide an introduction to the ethical and social issues sparked by our ever-growing information society.

´ We consider the impact of digitized information on individuals and societies and include discussions on privacy, reliability, security, intellectual property.

´ We also discuss the social impact of information technology in different areas of human life.

Terminologies

´ Information Technology (IT) ´ Information Technology is the application of appropriate

technologies to the organization, manipulations & distribution of information by computers & telecommunications.

Ethics

¢  Ethics

�  From a Greek word “ethos”: character/customs.

� A branch of philosophy.

�  Involves:

¢ Freedom, privacy, equality, duty, obligations choice, justification of judgments, rights, claims

Morality

� A set of rules of right conduct

� A system used to modify and regulate our behavior

�  The code or set of principles, standards, or rules that guide the moral actions of an individual within a particular social framework.

Ethical and Social Issues - J.M. Kizza

13 Definition of Morality

´ Moral judgment & decision: how a person ought to act & the extent to which the action is described as right or wrong.

´ Morality includes virtues like: ´ Love for others

´ Compassion.

´ Desire for justice.

Ethical and Social Issues - J.M. Kizza

14 Morality

´  It builds character traits in individuals. ´  It is group-based in the sense that it is a set of shared

rules, principles and duties applicable to a group/society and independent of religion.

´  It has no reference to social standing of individuals in the group

´  It is influenced by other factors like: ´ Time

´ place

Morality and Ethics

�  Ethics is generally defined as: ‘Systematic study of morality’

�  Ethics is a study of right & wrong in human conduct.

� A theoretical examination of morality & as an equivalent of the theory of moral.

Morality vs. Ethics: Comparison Chart

Ethics   Morals  

What are they?  

The rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group or culture.  

Principles or habits with respect to right or wrong conduct. While morals also prescribe dos and don'ts, morality is ultimately a personal compass of right and wrong.  

Where do they come from?  

Social system – External   Individual - Internal  

Why we do it?  Because society says it is the right thing to do.   Because we believe in something being right or

wrong.  

Origin   Greek word "ethos" meaning" character"   Latin word "mos" meaning "custom"  

Acceptability  

Ethics are governed by professional and legal guidelines within a particular time and place  

Morality transcends cultural norms  

Reference: http://www.diffen.com/difference/Ethics_vs_Morals

Computer Ethics

´ The systematic study of the ethical & social impact of computer in the information society.

´  Involve the acquisition, distribution, storage, processing & dissemination of digital data & how individuals & groups interact with the systems & data.

´ Responsibility & accountability.

´ Policies, regulations, legislation.

Computer Ethics: Moore's Definition

´ James H. Moore is believed to have first coined the phrase "computer ethics“.

´ According to Moore, computer ethics is the analysis of the nature and social impact of computer technology and the corresponding formulation and justification of policies for the ethical use of such technology .

´ Moore's definition focuses on the human actions that are routed in computer technology or influenced by computer technology.

Computer Ethics…

´ In other words, it is a study, an analysis of the values of human actions influenced by computer technology.

´ Computer influence on human actions is widespread throughout the decision making process preceding the action.

´ We are looking for a way to deal with these problems, probably through education.

´ So the definition of computer ethics, as outlines by Moore, gives us a starting point to our study.

Computer Crimes

´ The illegal activities related to computers and computer networks.

´  Any illegal act for which knowledge of computer technology is used to commit the offence. [National Institute of Justice]

´ Any criminal act that has been committed using a computer as the principle tool.

´ Some of the computer crimes are transformation of old crimes others are entirely new kinds of crimes.

The Emergence of the Social and Ethical Problems in Computing

´ One can perhaps say that the history of computer crimes started with the invention of the computer virus.

´ A computer virus is defined as: ´ A self-propagating computer program designed to alter

or destroy a computer system resource, ´ It follows almost the same pattern but instead of using the

living body, it uses software to attach itself, grow, reproduce and spread in the new environment.

Computer Virus

´ As a virus spreads in the new environment, it attacks major system resources that include the surrogate software itself, data, and sometimes hardware resources

´ Aims to damage the capacity of these resources to perform the needed functions and eventually bringing the system down.

´ The word virus was first assigned a non-biological meaning in the 1972 science fiction stories about the G.O.D.

Why the need for New Study?

´ New Technology provides New Choices & Abilities

´ Behavior

´ Public Policies

´ Personal Policies

IS Computer Ethics Unique?

´ Considering the following two schools of thought. Which one is right? Why?

´ School-1: ´  believes in the study of computer ethics as remedial moral

education. ´ School-2:

´  believes in computer ethics education not as a moral education but as a field worthy of study in its own right as a separate independent field of study,

´ there must be a unique domain for computer ethics distinct from the domain for moral education, distinct even from the domains of other kinds of professional and applied ethics.

IS Computer Ethics Unique?

´ In his paper “Is Computer Ethics Unique?”, Walter Maner explained: ´ Certain ethical issues are so transformed by the

use of computers that they deserve to be studied on their own, in their radically altered form,

´ The involvement of computers in human conduct can create entirely new ethical issues, unique to computing, that do not surface in other areas.

Walter Maner’s Justification

1.  We should study computer ethics because doing so will make us behave like responsible professionals.

2.  We should study computer ethics because doing so will teach us how to avoid computer abuse and catastrophes.

3.  We should study computer ethics because the advance of computing technology will continue to create temporary policy gaps.

Walter Maner’s Justification

4.  We should study computer ethics because the use of computing permanently transforms certain ethical issues to the degree that their alterations require independent study.

5.  We should study computer ethics because the use of computing technology creates, and will continue to create, novel ethical issues that require special study.

6.  We should study computer ethics because the set of novel and transformed issues is large enough and coherent enough to define a new field.

´  Whatever school-1 falls in, there is enough justification to study computer ethics.

Discussion Questions

´  IS your chosen crime a transformation of old crimes or a unique (entirely new) computer crime?

´  Compare Morality to Ethics. ´  3 lessons (comments) from TED’s Talk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf3zxHuSM2Y